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Call us Now at (800) 488-7621 (ii) Requirements of Drug Management Programs (§§ 423.153, 423.153(f))) The $204.6 million savings is removed from the plan bid, but not the CMS benchmark. If the benchmark exceeds the bid, Medicare pays the MA organization the bid (capitation rate and risk adjustment) plus a percentage of the difference between the benchmark and the bid, called the rebate. The rebate is based on quality ratings and allows Medicare to share in the savings to the plans; our experience with rebates shows that the average rebate is on the order of 2/3. We assumed that of the $204.6 million in annual savings, Medicare would save 35 percent × $204.6 million = $71,610,000, and the remaining 65 percent × $204.6 million = $132,990,000 would be paid to the plans. The plan portion of the savings we project for this proposal would fund extra benefits or possibly reduce cost sharing for plan members. 4,600 40,000 1,984 Site Map We propose that if a sponsor does not implement the limitation on the potential at-risk beneficiary's access to coverage of frequently abused drugs it described in the initial notice, then the sponsor would be required to provide the beneficiary with an alternate second notice. Although not explicitly required by the statute, we believe this notice is consistent with the intent of the statute and is necessary to avoid beneficiary confusion and minimize unnecessary appeals. We propose generally that in such an alternate notice, the sponsor must notify the beneficiary that the sponsor no longer considers the beneficiary to be a potential at-risk beneficiary upon making such determination; will not place the beneficiary in its drug management program; will not limit the beneficiary's access to coverage for frequently abused drugs; and if applicable, that the SEP limitation no longer applies. There has been a recent trend in the number of enrollees that have moved from lower Star Ratings contracts that do not receive a Quality Bonus Payment (QBP) to higher rated contracts that do receive a QBP as part of contract consolidations. The proposal is to codify the methodology of the assigned Star Ratings and to add requirements addressing when contracts have consolidated. The methodology and measures being proposed here are generally from recent practice and policies finalized under the section 1853(b) of the Act Rate Announcement. With regard to consolidations, the Star Ratings assigned would be based on the enrollment weighted average of the measure scores of the surviving and consumed contract(s) so that the ratings reflect the performance of all contracts (surviving and consumed) involved in the consolidation. We believe that the proposal would dissuade many plans from consolidating contracts since it would be possible for some plans to lose QBPs under certain scenarios. If less contracts consolidate to higher Star Ratings, less QBPs would be paid to plans and this would result in Trust Fund savings. (E) A contract with all other combinations of variance and relative mean will have a reward factor equal to 0.0. Thank you for signing up to receive the Medicare Made Clear newsletter. Your first issue – chock full of useful tips and information – will arrive in your inbox soon. Enjoy! 12 Legislative oversight News in Education The MA and Part D Star Ratings measure the quality of care and experiences of beneficiaries enrolled in MA and Part D contracts, with 5 stars as the highest rating and 1 star as the lowest rating. The Star Ratings provide ratings at various levels of a hierarchical structure based on contract type, and all ratings are determined using the measure-level Star Ratings. Contingent on the contract type, ratings may be provided and include overall, summary (Part C and D), and domain Star Ratings. Information about the measures, the hierarchical structure of the ratings, and the methodology to generate the Star Ratings is detailed in the annually updated Medicare Part C and D Star Ratings Technical Notes, referred to as Technical Notes, available at http://go.cms.gov/partcanddstarratings. 113 documents from 48 agencies The following congressional committees provide oversight for Medicare programs:[161] Given the significant growth in manufacturer rebates and pharmacy price concessions in recent years, when such amounts are not reflected in the negotiated price, at least to some degree, the true price of a drug to the plan is not available to consumers at the point of sale, nor is it reflected on the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder (Plan Finder) tool. Consequently, consumers cannot efficiently minimize both their costs and costs to the taxpayers by seeking and finding the lowest-cost drug or the lowest-cost drug and pharmacy combination. While we know that the majority of LIS-eligible beneficiaries do not take advantage of the SEP, we have seen the Medicare and Medicaid environment evolve in such a way that it may be disadvantageous to beneficiaries if they changed plans during the year, let alone if they made multiple changes. States and plans have noted that they are best able to provide or coordinate care if there is continuity of enrollment, particularly if the beneficiary is enrolled in an integrated product (as discussed later in this section). We now know that in addition to choice, there are other critical issues that must be considered in determining when and how often beneficiaries should be able to change their Medicare coverage during the year, such as coordination of Medicare-Medicaid benefits, beneficiary care management, and public health concerns such as the national opioid epidemic (and the drug management programs discussed in section II.A.1). In addition, there are different care models available now such as dual eligible special needs plans (D-SNPs), Fully Integrated Dual Eligible (FIDE) SNPs, and Medicare-Medicaid Plans (MMPs) that are discussed later in this section and specifically designed to meet the needs of high risk, high needs beneficiaries. 7500 Security Boulevard Comments will be reviewed before being published. Why Wellmark? Contact for Learn More About Turning Age 65 and Medicare 2016 SHOP Dental Plans People First § 422.503 Get to Know Your Plan SEARCH Although section 1860D-4(c)(5) is silent as to the sequence of the steps of clinical contact, prescriber verification, and the initial notice, we propose to implement these requirements such that they would occur in the following order: First, the plan sponsor would conduct the case management which encompasses clinical contact and prescriber verification required by § 423.153(f)(2) and prescriber agreement required by § 423.153(f)(4), and second would, as applicable, indicate the sponsor's intent to limit the beneficiary's access to frequently abused drugs by providing the initial notice. In our view, a sponsor cannot reasonably intend to limit the beneficiary's access unless it has first undertaken case management to make clinical contact and obtain prescriber verification and agreement. Further, under our proposal, although the proposed regulatory text of (f)(4)(i) states that the sponsor must verify with the prescriber(s) that the beneficiary is an at-risk beneficiary in accordance with the applicable statutory language, the beneficiary would still be a potential at-risk beneficiary from the sponsor's perspective when the sponsor provides the beneficiary the initial notice. This is because the sponsor has yet to solicit information from the beneficiary about his or her use of frequently abused drugs, and such information may have a bearing on whether a sponsor identifies a potential at-risk beneficiary as an at-risk beneficiary. 10 Best Stocks Right Now If you have employer coverage You do not need to get a referral or prior authorization to go outside the network. Design Your Plan (A) A logistic regression model with contract fixed effects and beneficiary-level indicators of LIS/DE and disability status is used for the adjustment. 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